Buying a factory demo: bad idea?

[shmerham]

On a search using autotrader I found an 05 Legacy Limited wagon automatic. It's a factory demo with 7400 miles. It's selling for 23k which is what the dealer value was for that vehicle on Edmunds.

 

I fear that a demo car would have been driven hard.

 

I wonder if a factory demo would qualify for rebates or low apr financing.

 

If this isn't a bad idea, what would a good price for this vehicle be?

[rweddy]

On a search using autotrader I found an 05 Legacy Limited wagon automatic. It's a factory demo with 7400 miles. It's selling for 23k which is what the dealer value was for that vehicle on Edmunds.

 

I fear that a demo car would have been driven hard.

 

I wonder if a factory demo would qualify for rebates or low apr financing.

 

If this isn't a bad idea, what would a good price for this vehicle be?

 

Who is telling you it is a factory demo?

This is stealership code words for Rental Car. What is happening now is dealerships buy cars back from Hertz/Avis/Etc and call them Factory demo's or program cars. A dealership would never let a demo car go that high.

I would never buy a rental car, I know what I do to them!!

[subeman90]

I would never buy a rental car, I know what I do to them!!

 

ditto on the beating. I love neutral drops personally...especially in fords.

[ferret]

My 90 Legacy LS AWD wagon was a dealer demo. Bought it with 9.2K miles in August of 1990. Had Full Factory warrenty. Dealer even agreed to extend the then 36K bumper2bumper to 45K. This Demo was used by his Wife. Had a few minor paint mars and interior marks, But was a great deal.

 

Turned out to be the BEST car I have owned to date. Had it for 7 1/2 yrs before it was totaled in a bad bad accident on the NY Thruway back in 97. Had 179K on the odometer at the time. Other than normal maintainence, did 1 front CV joint, and 1 water pump.

 

I had a good experience, from a known great dealer here in NJ (Liberty Subaru in Oradell). Be certain you know the use of the vehicle before you buy.

[howards11]

On a search using autotrader I found an 05 Legacy Limited wagon automatic. It's a factory demo with 7400 miles. It's selling for 23k which is what the dealer value was for that vehicle on Edmunds.

 

I fear that a demo car would have been driven hard.

 

I wonder if a factory demo would qualify for rebates or low apr financing.

 

If this isn't a bad idea, what would a good price for this vehicle be?

 

I'd do a Carfax on it before buying.

 

~Howard

[nipper]

Do a carfax, if it comes up a rental go away. If it was just registered to the dealership, it might be OK. Thats what mechanics (check out the car) and extented warrenties are for.

 

nipper

[Crashton]

Even if it does check out I'd ask for them to throw in a SUBARU extended warranty.

 

Chuck

[cookie]

over here every year the have the Buick open. After the open all the courtesy cars are for sale, most of them cherry.

I've had pretty good luck with a low mileage demo myself.

[MDW25gt]

I got a written quote for an 05 leg wagon i, new, USD $20343. The 06's are coming in and the US auto makers employee priceing is also helping.

[howards11]

Do a carfax, if it comes up a rental go away. If it was just registered to the dealership, it might be OK. Thats what mechanics (check out the car) and extented warrenties are for.

 

nipper

 

I agree. I've had two used ("previously owned") cars in the last few years. I both cases the dealers had no objection having me take the cars to my mechanic. One car had an extended warranty from Saturn. The Subaru Forester had a 2 year warranty from AAA which I purchased separately.

 

~Howard

[drewd]

I've never seen a subaru at a rental place and i rent cars often and in different places around the county. If it was a used impala or a camry...definitely a no-brainer...err...rental car.

 

Highly unlikely that soob was a rental...

[gbrand]

Never had a sube as a rental-but they do exist. My brother came to Dallas in early 90's for a two week school, came over to visit a couple times and was driving a subaru rental-said it was what they gave him. Don't remember exactly what flavor it was. Also a good buddy who is a field engineer and travels a lot was complaining-on a trip to michigan or montana in snow season they gave him a rear wheel drive ford boat, a crown vic I think-and for his trip to far South Texas, he gets a Subaru Outback, AWD of course.

[Zephyr]

I bought my automatic 05' LW for under 21k. I bet if you shopped around enough, you could get that limited for under the price of what the demo's price is.

 

Also, banks and lenders will give you better rates on new cars than used. I'm assuming a demo car with over 7k miles will be sold as used.

[cookie]

at the Oakland Airport to take to Burning Man a few years ago. I don't recall which agency, but it was one of the fairly big ones. They are popular in some places as skiing rental cars. My brother in law in Queenstown New Zealand used to have several he rented to skiers. I haven't been over for a couple of years but I imagine he still rents some.

[mtsmiths]

Tons of Outback rental cars in NW Montana. Car of choice for incoming skiers, comes with a rack.

[Dusza Beben]

I'm an instructor at a technical school in NE Ohio, we get lots of folks in from out of state/country and they tend to get rental cars. I've seen the same 05 outback twice now in our lot and confirmed it to be a rental.

 

Oh, and Cookie, nice to see a fellow burner on the board.

 

DB

[Capri]

Hi,

 

You can walk into a dealership and they will turn you around and you walk out with something you never intended on buying. Those "deals" are sure appealing, but the saying, "nothing in life is free" also applies to bargains, like "if it's too good to be true, it is".

 

I'd personally stay away from used vehicle unless I bought one from a private owner. The dealerships have mechanics and repair shops at their disposal to make something bad look good very easily.

 

The big thing now is "certified" cars. They are used cars that come with warranties. What they are is used cars with no rules as to where they have to come from, private owners, salespeople's cars they are given to drive etc. Yeah, they can be driven hard, they can have had done to them whatever it is they do to actually keep the car from registering the real miles, so they don't only turn back odometers, they disconnect them. I sold cars so I know they do these things. Buying this car from them is like rolling dice.

 

To New Car Buyers: Go to Consumer's Report online and pay $5. to get the real invoice price from the vehicle you want to buy. The dealership will be glad to show you their invoice, but it will be higher than the one at Consumer's. Note if the dealer gets an "incentive" which means Subaru pays them money to sell the vehicle, so they are already making a profit. My stealership had the nerve to have a second the invoice price on my 2006 Forester making it go up an extra $2,000.00 above MSRP which is already the vehicle with the profit in it. The extra $2,000. is used to tell people the car is in great demand and there aren't too many. Yeah, right!!!! I started at the invoice price and my husband let the saleman talk him into paying $100 over invoice. They were also getting a $500 check back from Subaru, so I didn't want to pay a penny over sticker and who's knocking down their doors for SUVs even though I think the Forester is listed as wagon. It gets pretty good gas mileage for it's size, but I still refused to pay what they wanted.

 

A guy from Subaru said there is extra money hidden in the invoice prices that you will never know about that the dealer gets, so they will always make a profit, even if they sell at invoice.

 

Use Edmonds.com to check out extras. You can pay just the cost for them. I wanted a basic car and if they could not provide me with one which they couldn't, I would only pay the cost for extras and not the profit that goes with it. They are already getting a profit from the sale of the car. They don't need the profit from the extras too. Go in strong, know what price you want to pay and be flexible if there are extras, and stick to your guns. They will give you any excuse to have you pay more. The last trick they use is, "let's split the difference", don't do it.

 

Bye, Capri

[bjwirth]

Here's another way to look at a demo car (or loaner, or rental or off lease)...

 

There's this notion NOT to buy one of these cars because the previous drivers abused the snot out of them and because of their bad driving, the car will fall apart in a year after you bought it. I know that I have never abused a rental car, loaner car or lease car that I've ever driven. I'm sure most drivers are the same way. I do think there are a few people that go out of their way to abuse the car, but I think that number is REALLY small. most people that are driving a rental or a loaner just drive normal- maybe I'll put my coffee down and not care if I spill it, but that won't affect the overall reliability.

 

Does driving a car agressively lead to premature failure? Has that corelation actually been made?? I've driven my 300zx and bmw very aggressively and never had a problem (other than tires). we're not talking about a model T where if you turn too fast, the wheels might break off.

 

In fact, everyone has their own "warm and fuzzy" feelings as to what makes a good used car... buying a used car from a dealer or buyin a used car from an old lady. Probably the biggest subjective deciding factor as to what a good used car is a car that looks very clean. These are all factors that have no bearing on how reliable a car will be. when I sell a used car, I always bring maintenance records, get the car cleaned inside and out, and put a little stuffed animal in the car- none of this stuff means anything, but for whatever reason people like to see this stuff and it instills confidence.

 

So my point is just as the stuff I do to cars doesn't make the car a better buy, a demo car doesn't make a car a worse buy.

[rweddy]

I know that I have never abused a rental car, loaner car or lease car that I've ever driven. I'm sure most drivers are the same way. I do think there are a few people that go out of their way to abuse the car, but I think that number is REALLY small. most people that are driving a rental or a loaner just drive normal- maybe I'll put my coffee down and not care if I spill it, but that won't affect the overall reliability.

 

Does driving a car agressively lead to premature failure? Has that corelation actually been made?? I've driven my 300zx and bmw very aggressively and never had a problem (other than tires). we're not talking about a model T where if you turn too fast, the wheels might break off.

 

 

You are defiantly in the minority here.

I am a Trainer and run training departments and manage trainers for several companies. My teams travel all over the USA and we always talk about the things we do to rental cars.

 

When someone says they are hard on rentals loaners, they are not saying we do jackrabbit starts, or hard braking.

Most drivers do things like neutral drops, high speed emergency break u-turns, throw the car in park while still moving, jump speed bumps and large curbs, etc.

 

This is not to mention the fact of poorly followed maintance schedules. My friend works for a Major Rental company and they rarely do maintance on the vehicles since they keep them for a year or less. It is also very hard to keep up when lets say a car has had 3500 miles on it, it needs it next service but it is rented out and the driver puts 3000 miles on it. He is always telling me how the drivers at his company use the rentals for ad hoc rally races in the parking lots and to and from sites also.

 

It has become such an issue that the rental companies are no longer selling their cars to the public, they are selling them back to dealership or manufactures and these dealers are labeling these cars as program cars or "demo".

[cookie]

you are not so likely to beat a rental car. I drove them pretty fast when I was a kid but the only thing I recall damageing was left side hubcaps in New Zealand when I had not mastered parking while driving from the other side.

Actually I have had my best car experience with a certified used car. It was great being able to take it back to the dealer for any little thing that made me cranky for 100,000 miles. No maintence costs at all...whee!

Rental car abuse stores abound like the Shelby Mustangs Hertz rented that folks took right out to the racetrack.

I kind of wonder if the fact that rental cars at least get maintence makes up for abuse. A lot of folks buy a car and treat it like a refrigerator.

[Capri]

Richard,

 

I was laughing my butt off at your description of how rental cars are driven and you are correct. We are not talking about people who just drive fast. I drove over I don't even know what with my car given to me to use by my stealership. Next week, the other salesman is selling it as used. I'm sure he pointed over to me and said how nice I drove my car. I was younger and more innocent looking and dressed professionally. No one would ever think I was evil kanevil with my car. Who knows what happened under there and never mind the odometer reading not being right. All I heard was a crunch and a sound like I was dragging something. I had a stick shift, so there was always the potential for misusing the hell out of that.

 

Speaking about driving fast anyway, I drove so fast going out to the Hamptons after work in NY that my car became airborne going over a slight bump. I had no working speedometer since the odometer was disconnected, so I always wondered how slow I would have to go to keep from being airborne again, lol:) Driving fast would be a pleasure if that was all that happend to a used car before you bought it.

 

Personally, I never sold my car or another salesperson's cars, because I could not sell a car to a person where the odometer was wrong. Getting as much money as you can is one thing, but lying or selling something that may be defective is where I draw the line. I did sell one car where my client called me to say he found the hood was repainted. I didn't know. I later found out that at one time, someone got into the lot and was perhaps jumping on all the cars, so they had to fix it them. I felt bad about selling that vehicle. I don't remember if he got a new car or if he was compensated him in anyway. It was a long time ago.

 

Also, my husband's family came to visit and rented out a Camry for my husband to drive them around in and he said the car was terrible. I told him before we discounted buying that car, to drive one from a dealership and he did and said there was a big difference, so rentals are.....just not right for whatever reason and it only had a few miles on it.

 

Bye, Capri